First Thanksgiving and Other Rites of Passage

I must say that we had much to be thankful for this year. Well, I know I did, and I am sure Troy would say the same. The simple fact that we are finally parents is just one reason, but the boys themselves are three more. It has definitely been a huge test of faith, patience, love, our marriage and everything else imaginable, but just watching the changes that have taken place in the boys' personalities in the past (almost) five months is nothing short of humbling.

Being unemployed continues to challenge me (to say the least) everyday. I am enjoying the boys more, but feeling very idle, a bit depressed and quite bitter still. I hope this will soon pass. I know that this is obviously a part of God's much greater plan for our lives, but I still miss having that one thing that was just "mine all mine". To top it all off, we have ALL been sick - not one of us spared - over the past two weeks; beginning with Daniel and now I seem to be the one who has whatever this icky virus is. More on this in a moment.

Thanksgiving was good. It was wonderful to be home with my family for a few days. I can't get enough of all of the "primos" together. They have such a good time playing and getting loud. It is a lot of fun. The boys ate a lot too. On the way home, Samuel said (in English) "at Nana's house, we eat and eat and eat and eat." This statement got belly laughs from both Troy and I. He is not kidding either! There was food galore.

On Tuesday, I was initiated into the wonderful world of stay-at-home-mommydom when Luis pooped on me and puked on me within about a 30 minute time span. He was so miserable. I felt horrible for him. He threw up again (on Troy, the floor, the massage chairs, his coat, his pants, his shoes, etc...) Thursday night at Concord Mills Mall - this time not because of the virus but because he stuffed himself full of chips, a quesadilla and rice at a Mexican restaurant and then proceeded to run around like crazy. On our walk back to the car, he walked into a railing and hit his cheek. It was so not his night.

Troy taught the boys the true meaning of Hokie pride this weekend by taking them to his friend John's house to watch the Tech game. You have never heard anything sweeter than these little boys saying "Go Hokies!" We thought we would start them early!

Well enough jibber jabber! Onto the pictures!

My little men! They were just too cute to resist a photo op in their kahkis and sweaters. Muy guapo indeed!

Samuel and Ethan had a blast playing together. Ethan is a couple of weeks younger than the twins, but the same size as Samuel. We LOVE our primos (cousins).

I think Liana is the best cousin ever! She gave the boys presents and takes great care of them. Not to mention she is a bit of tomboy so she has no problem being all rough and tumble with them. And she confided in me that she likes being the only girl. I can't say I blame her - it has to have its perks.

The boys at the kids table. This is where I ended up eating because the boys wanted to play more than they wanted to eat and at the rate that Luis eats, he would have been there ALL night.

To pass the time, we made turkey headbands for the boys.

I underestimated the size of Ethan's head, so his accidentally ripped. He was a little bit upset.

On the ride home, Daniel did this really silly thing with his aika. We still aren't sure what it was all about. Check out Samuel in the background who apparently has attended the Rob Wootton seminar on how to pop up in other people's pictures.

Bundled up for the wintry weather...Well as wintry as Charlotte gets. Samuel started riding the bus this week which has been a huge blessing. Now I only have to get one child up before 8 AM and get him ready and out the door. A LOT less stress. It also alleviates a lot of afternoon stress since the twins can nap before 3 PM. And he loves it!

I call this one the attack of the Oreo cookie. Luis is not only a slow eater, but a very messy one too.

Watching the game in Papá's t-shirt. Yes, it came down to his calves when he stood up, but he was insistent on showing his Hokie pride. Again, we are trying to start them early! Go Hokies!

Low-Key Weekend

This post will probably be short and sweet which will probably be a relief to most of you since the last one ran a little long. Our weekend was pretty low key. Troy hasn't been feeling well, so we took it easy yesterday. That gave me a chance to start organizing and packing our stuff. Today, José stopped by with his six-month-old son Juan José and then came back in the afternoon to get us and take us out to the mall for a bit. The boys got to expend some of their energy at the arcade/play-place which was great for all of us.

The highlight of my afternoon was watching Samuel in the play-place (the twins are too young to go in alone and we couldn't accompany them). We had to pay for him to go in and he only got 15 minutes which he spent most of on the trampoline (surprise, surprise). But then he discovered he could climb the towers to the slides. They had two towers, one that went to the wavy slides which he did twice and then a much taller tower that went to a spiral slide. The look of pure joy and excitement when he came out of that spiral slide is indescribable. He was so happy. It is really neat to watch our kids experience these things for the first time that most of the other kids in there were taking for granted. The real highlight though is when the 15 minutes were up, the staff working the play-place wouldn’t let the kids exit until their parent claimed them, and Samuel and I were pointing at each other, claiming each other. That was really cool. Oh, and now is a good time to mention that when we first got there, I lost Luis. I went to throw something away and, without realizing it, he followed me. We looked all around only to find him in a sea of people, bawling his eyes out. As Troy ran towards him and scooped him up, he was still crying, but you could see the look of relief on his face - the best part, he wasn't looking to just anyone for help, he was looking for us. Troy's highlight was playing air hockey with Daniel. He didn't want to ride on any of the little cars or do anything else, but he really seemed to want to play air hockey. Guess we are going to have to get an air hockey table...Isn't that terrible?

Tomorrow will hopefully be packing and passports!


When I started packing the boys decided they wanted to wear their raincoats...inside...all day. The irony, it rains here everyday, but we have never actually worn our raincoats outside in the rain. I am not sure how that happened.


These are the gifts that "Tia" Rosario and the staff of El Cortijo gave the boys at their fiesta the other night. These are carros they are not allowed to play with.


Don't let our boys fool you. They don't actually read their books, but they do love to look at them. They also won't sit still long enough to let us read to them. I think they have never really been read to.


José and his son Juan José. What a cutie! The boys were so curious and weren't really sure of what to do with him. When José came back to get us later in the afternoon, Luis looked all over the car for the baby and was genuinely upset that José didn't bring him back.


Samuel will occasionally hold the twins hands when they walk down the stairs. He is very helpful when he wants to be which is great. We really want him to understand that he is the older brother and not four. We suspect that he was treated like a four year old, and we hope to help him feel more like an older brother.


OK, so Luis didn't cry on any of the little rides and actually wanted to go on everything that Samuel did. I guess that little push car at Parque del Café was a great jump start in getting him over whatever fears he had about amusement rides. Very weird, but encouraging.


Troy and I's public debut of Dance Dance Revolution. We thought that an international tour would be best. As you can see by the looks on our faces we pretty much sucked, and of course we not only had an audience but help from the twins. I guess we will have to keep practicing at home.

Parque del Café (Day #15 if you're counting...and I am)

Well, with both Mami and Samuel on the mend, we decided it was a perfect day to head to the amusement park. It's called Parque del Café, and we had a blast. There were definitely challenges, but it felt more like real family challenges, rather than "trapped in a hotel room" challenges. We first heard of this place from The Derr's Blog. In addition to staying in the same hotel [room] as Sheila and David, we now have done most of all of the same activities that they did. Although we've copied them in several ways, we at least didn't rip off the idea of adopting from Colombia from them. That was Robin and Adam. Just kidding....sort of. Anyways...onto the day.

José took a scenic route to the park, highlighting the plants and culture of the surrounding regions. On the way back, we took a more major highway through the mountains. The story plays out better with photos, so I'll just go with captions from here....

Just some quick updates: thanks to family for updates on my Dad's surgery, glad to hear all went well; Andrea is still coughing, but hanging in there; no word on our court date, we found out the paperwork we just completed isn't needed, so hopefully that's a bonus; Thursday will likely be hotel day with Papa making a run to the bank (with no kids).


During our drive on rural roads to the park, we passed through fields of coffee, bananas, and other foods that I don't really understand the name, but I'm sure I've eaten. The highlight was stopping at this pineapple field. Some of the workers walked up to us, and after chatting we bought a few pineapples right from the field. That's freshness not even Trader Joe's can top!



One more stop on the way to the park was at a hotel made almost completely of bamboo. This is a shot of the bridge.


The first attraction we checked out the park was this sightseeing tower...


View from the tower of a monument to the coffee process down below.


The walk into the park was highlighted with many educational displays, including several different types of coffee.


A rare moment with all the boys together. The following pictures tell a more accurate story.


Samuel led the pack all day. Daniel tried to keep up, José and I were trailing after, and Andrea and Luis Angel were in the back. Luis is for sure our slowpoke.


Andrea successfully guides the twins down a very tall staircase.


After a successful voyage on the train, we decided to give the carousel a shot. Daniel wanted nothing to do with it until it started up. Samuel was fine, but Luis only made three revolutions until he started flat out screaming. This was how the ride was handled the remainder of the time.


Samuel eagerly wanted to ride the cars. He was a bit bummed when he was told he couldn't drive, but was excited again when he saw a small non-functional wheel on his side. Daniel and Luis wanted to go, but weren't tall enough. As for the race report, we won of course, passing two cars when they got loose in turn 3. The #8 car was bright pink which I wish I would have taken a photo of for all the Junior fans back home.


So we were on a quest to find something the twins would like. José recommended this push cart. Luis began the ride crying, but with Mama's comforting hand and presence - by the time the ride came around he wanted to go again.


After walking and taking the train then more walking, we were finally at the other end of the park. We either had the option of a LONG walk back, or the sky car. All of us were allowed to ride in one car, and we braced ourselves of a ride full of crying/screaming. José had Samuel, I had Daniel, and Luis (who was the likely crier) was with Andrea. And then nothing. All was okay. I'm not sure how much the twins did or could look out over the edge, but everything was peaceful until we pulled into the landing zone, and we freaked out for a bit. So if you are keeping track, small pushcart scary, giant skyride not-so-much. I guess the known is much scarier than the unknown to Luis, which is the opposite of myself.


View of coffee plants from the skyride....yeah, we were up there.